First Annual Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny Memorial Lecture

Thursday, 13 September 2018
7:30 pm (doors open at 7:00 pm)
Ballroom, Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley

Free admission.

Speaker: Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor, Architectural History, University of Virginia

Topic: Creating a California Identity: Preserving the Missions

BAHA is pleased to announce the First Annual Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny Memorial Lecture. Endowed by friends of Susan Cerny, the lecture is free to the public, but seating is limited, so registration (at Eventbrite) is required.

In his illustrated talk, Professor Richard Guy Wilson will focus on efforts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to save the crumbling missions of Spanish California, and discuss how those efforts spearheaded the historic preservation movement in the state.

Susan Dinkelspiel Cerny was a past BAHA president and longtime BAHA board member, past member and chair of Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, author of Berkeley Landmarks, editor of and contributor to An Architectural Guidebook to San Francisco and the Bay Area, and a tireless advocate for preservation.

An informal reception will follow the lecture.

BAHA office is closed during August

Photo: Daniella Thompson, 2018

The BAHA office will be closed to the public during the month of August.

We are finishing some improvements to McCreary-Greer House, including a major exterior painting & repair project and some garden work, and our hardworking staff and volunteers are taking a well-deserved break.

During the closure, you can still contact us via e-mail. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements of upcoming events.

A tale of two captains and a grocery store

Captain James S. Higgins Temperance Grocery Store
(photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)

For many decades, the building at 834 Delaware Street was believed to have been Captain William J. Bowen’s inn, saloon, and grocery store, constructed in late 1853 or early 1854. The late Jerry Sulliger was the first to discover that this building dates from 1874 or ’75 and was initially constructed for Captain James S. Higgins. Contrary to popular belief, Bowen did not sell his grocery store to Higgins. Rather, the two captains operated competing stores across the street from each other for a couple of years, before Bowen got out of the grocery business. A new article by Daniella Thompson provides fresh information to augment Jerry Sulliger’s essay on the subject and sheds new light on the lives of the two pioneer captains.

Read it here:
Berkeley Landmarks: Captain James S. Higgins Temperance Grocery Store

Come see us at the Solano Stroll

Photo: Daniella Thompson, 2007

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday, 9 September 2018, at the 44th annual Solano Stroll. The BAHA booth will be located at 1741 Solano Avenue, on the north side of the street, near Ensenada Avenue.